There is a grapevine in the ranks of all the services. The men make it their business to find out who their officers are. There is a special respect for those who would carry the ball on a football field, throw a wicked block, or make a dead-stop tackle.
-- Slade Cutter

We’re only one week into our fundraiser, and holy guacamole you guys have responded. As of this afternoon, we’re at $2,255 raised for cancer research and patient care! That’s pretty incredible, and almost halfway to our goal– all for a race that isn’t even until February. As I refreshed the donation site over the weekend, I could see the total amount growing in large chunks. There have clearly been some VERY generous donations so far. To all who have given: thank you. It’s still very, very early as far as fundraising for this race goes, but as of right now we are the #2 fundraiser for the entire event!

The early momentum is awesome, but we haven’t reached our goal yet! If you haven’t donated already, what’s the holdup? Donate, then tell all the Navy fans you know about this sweet blog so they’ll donate too. Click on the picture to sponsor my run!

It’s been a busy week for me, so the ECU recap is running late. Don’t worry, it’ll happen. In the meantime, I’m going to do some shameless begging for this year’s Birddog fundraiser, the National Marathon To Finish Breast Cancer.

The usual formula for starting a fundraising campaign like this is to relate some kind of personal story about the cause. But do I really need to here? There isn’t a single person reading this that hasn’t been affected in some way by some form of cancer. You have all seen what patients and their families go through as they struggle with the physical pain and hardships, both emotional and financial, that come with fighting the disease. You already know the feeling of hopelessness while you wish that there was anything you could do to help.

But there is something you can do. It’s said that football games are won in practice the week before. The same is true about the fight against cancer. The advances in treatment and patient care that we see today are the result of years of research. That research was made possible by the generous donations of people like you. The amount of progress we have seen in cancer treatment, even over just the last decade, is nothing short of amazing. Imagine what we might see in the next decade with the research that we can start today. Don’t wait until you or a loved one needs it. Donate now. Put in the practice before the game.

You can do so knowing that your donation will go a long way. Every single dime that you give goes to charity. 70% of your donation will fund breast cancer research at the Mayo Clinic. The remaining 30% goes toward patient care through The Donna Foundation. You will be caring for people who need it now, and laying the foundation for the care of those who will need it in the future.

That is why I am asking for your sponsorship. It’s been more than 4 years since we did the March of Dimes fundraiser. We raised almost $1000 back then, so my goal to raise $5000 is admittedly a bit ambitious. We have a lot more people reading the blog now than we did back then, though, so I’m hoping that reaching more people means raising more money. Besides, the race isn’t until February. That’s plenty of time to donate now, forget that you donated, then donate again two months from now. Donating is easy; just click on the picture to get started. Even if you can’t donate, you can still help. Post the link to Facebook. Tweet it. Spread the word.

Some of you have sent me notes saying that you like the game breakdowns so much that you’d pay for them. Instead of wasting your money on me, why not put that money to good use? As fun as it is to call for the backup quarterback and make fun of Air Force, let’s add one more play to this blog’s playbook: giving! Thanks for reading, and thanks for your help.

I am now officially the third-best writer on my own blog, as Christian Swezey has joined the Birddog crew.

You already know him so we’ll skip the “former Washington Post Navy beat writer” this and “award-winning lacrosse writer” that and get to the important stuff. There are a few things you need to know about Christian.

One, he knows Navy inside and out; not just from his time covering the Mids for the Post, but from a lifetime of watching Navy sports. If he didn’t already write for a living, he probably would’ve started a Navy blog long before Adam & I did. The Navy Football History Knowledge Power Rankings look like this:

1. Jack Clary
2. Christian Swezey

Two, he has an even bigger library of Navy football and lacrosse games than I do. It ranks somewhere between “Library of Congress” and “Jedi Archives” in terms of scale. That probably contributes to the first point.

Three, you have to be REALLY careful what you say to him, because if you give him even the slightest opening he’ll make this blog all about cricket and Manchester United faster than you can say “Old Trafford.” Seriously, the first time he says, “I don’t care if Australia’s wicket-keeper is an all-rounder. He can’t hit a grubber, and England’s bowler has the best googly I’ve ever seen! I’ll bet you 20 quid they win The Ashes!,” don’t say you weren’t warned.

Four, he is the nicest person you would ever hope to meet. He has already been indirectly contributing to this blog for a long time through the advice and insight that he’s given me. I consider it a privilege to collaborate with Christian and Adam and am very, very excited about what we can do with this formerly-mediocre-but-now-kinda-good blog.

So with that, please join me in welcoming our newest gnu to this internet watering hole.

You would be surprised how time-consuming a blog can be. I haven’t been able to devote as much time to it as I used to. After basically taking last season off, I felt like I had to make a decision. I should either shut down for good, or acknowledge my time constraints and find someone else willing to paddle this electronic canoe. I chose the latter, and would like to introduce Adam Nettina as a contributor to The Birddog.

Not that Adam needs any introduction to most internet-conscious Navy fans. You’ve seen his work on GoMids.com and have heard him on the In The Bleachers podcast. This might be the only Navy sports blog I know of, but it isn’t the first; that honor belongs to Adam’s first project, Pitch Right. He recently graduated from Utah State, where he wrote several excellent pieces for the USU Statesman. (Seriously, they’re good). You already know him and trust him, and now you have one more place to read his work. This is probably something that should’ve happened a long time ago if for no other reason than to give you hyenas a new target to distract you from me.

I have a lot of readers in Annapolis and in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach areas. If you guys are reading this, I assume you decided not to get out of dodge ahead of the storm. My parents live in Virginia Beach, and I offered to drive up to help them hunker down and for the inevitable cleanup. My father said no. I’m pretty sure he’s going to climb the flagpole on the end of his dock and ride this one out Lieutenant Dan-style. For the rest of you, don’t forget to fill your bathtub and stay away from windows.

Stay safe. By the time you get power back, I might even have the Delaware preview posted.